Pathophysiological significance of gallbladder volume changes in gallstone diseases

Table 1 Demographic data and gallbladder volume in gallstone and non-gallstone subjects

Variables diagnosis	M/F	Mean age (yr)	Mean GBV (cm3) (n)	SD (cm3)	P-value (95% CI1)
Acute	D53/462	57 ± 17	A57.00	41.20	0.00043
Cholecystitis			(99)		(7.73-26.35)
Chronic	32/53	53 ± 15	B28.77	15.00	< 0.00014
Cholecystitis			(85)		(8.14-15.86)
Contracted		44 ± 21	6.15	2.52
Gallbladder	1/4		(5)
Non-gallstone		54 ± 18	C16.77	15.75
	E39/41		(240)	-

¹95% CI of gallbladder volume (GBV) difference;

²P value D vs E = 0.04, between gender of acute and chronic cholecystitis;

³P value A vs B: between GBV of acute and chronic cholecystitis;

⁴P value B vs C: between chronic cholecystitis and non-gallstone subjects. SD: Standard deviation.

Table 2 Incidence of gallstones and gallbladder volume of non-gallstone subjects at different ages

Patients age periods (n = 85)	Incidence of gallstone1 (%)	Non-gallstone		P value
		Mean GBV (cm3) (n)	SD (cm3)
Age ≤ 20	0	A6.33 (9)	2.75	0.0072
20 < Age ≤ 40	15	B16.84 (35)	11.04	0.30
40 < Age ≤ 60	42.5	C15.12 (106)	7.55	0.00033
60 < Age ≤ 80	42.5	D19.83 (81)	9.99	0.76
80 < Age	0	18.73 (9)	10.32

¹P = 0.0027 by Fisher’s exact test;

²P value A vs B: between Age ≤ 20 and 20 < Age ≤ 40;

³P value C vs D: between 40 < Age ≤ 60 and 60 < Age ≤ 80. GBV: Gallbladder volume; SD: Standard deviation.

Table 3 Mean fasting, postprandial gallbladder volume and ejection fraction in gallstones patients and normal subjects

	Fasting mean GBV ± SD (cm3) (n)	Postprandial mean GBV ± SD(cm3) (n)	EF ± SD (%) (n)
GS	A31.34 ± 16.46	B20.50 ± 6.201	C34.6 ± 10.6
	(65)	(65)	(65)
Normal subjects	D19.24 ± 11.302	E9.03 ± 3.632	F53.3 ± 24.9
	(53)	(53)	(53)
P-value	< 0.00013	< 0.00014	< 0.00015
(95% CI)	(A-D, 6.93-17.47)	(B-E, 9.56-13.48)	(C-F, 11.9-25.5)

¹P value A vs B < 0.0001, A-B 95% CI: 6.62–15.26;

²P value D vs E < 0.0001; D-E 95% CI: 6.98-13.44;

³P values A vs D: between fasting gallbladder volume (GBV) of chronic cholecystitis and normal subjects;

⁴P values B vs E: between postprandial GBV of chronic cholecystitis and normal subjects;

⁵P values C vs F: between ejection fraction (EF) of chronic cholecystitis and normal subjects. SD: Standard deviation; GS: Gallstones.

Table 4 Mean gallbladder volume in acute calculous cholecystitis group: simple vs with gangrene/abscess

Variable GS patients	Mean GBV±SD (cm3) (n)	1P-value A vs B (A-B, 95% CI)
Simple ACC	A53.19 ± 33.80	0.002
	(87)	(12.28-52.66)
With gangrene/abscess	B84.66 ± 26.32
	(12)

¹P values, A vs B: mean gallbladder volume (GBV) of patients with simple acute calculous cholecystitis (ACC) vs ACC with gangrene/abscess. SD: Standard deviation; GS: Gallstones.